Laura K Spencer, Ed.D.

Tag: #criticalthinking

  • How a Simple Thinking Routine and AI Help Leaders Get Clarity After Tough Meetings

    How a Simple Thinking Routine and AI Help Leaders Get Clarity After Tough Meetings

    I keep coming back to something I learned at Harvard’s Project Zero Summer Institute.

    Teachers use simple “thinking routines” to help students slow down and make sense of the world.

    Nothing fancy.

    Just structured steps that help your brain stop jumping all over the place.

    One of the classics is See Think Wonder.

    It asks three basic questions:

    What do you notice?

    What does it make you think?

    What are you still wondering about?

    It sounds simple, almost too simple, but it works.

    And honestly, adults need it more than kids.

    The problem is leaders rarely give themselves time to sort their thinking. Most of the time you close the laptop and instantly open the next tab in your brain. There’s no buffer. No moment to process what just happened.

    This is where AI has become a helpful partner for me.

    Not to “do the thinking,” but to slow me down long enough so the thinking can actually show up.

    Here’s what it looks like in real life.

    Let’s say I just wrapped a meeting on Zoom and something felt off. Maybe it was the tone, the reactions, or something in the chat. Instead of jumping straight into the next task, I open my AI chat and type:

    “Can you walk me through See Think Wonder on this?”

    Then I give a few sentences about what happened.

    And the conversation usually unfolds like this:

    AI: “Let’s start with what you noticed. Describe only the concrete things. No interpretations yet.”

    So I list what I literally saw or heard. The actual facts.

    AI: “Now, based on those observations, what did you think was going on?”

    This helps me separate facts from interpretations. Most leaders mix those together without even realizing it.

    AI: “What are you still unsure about?”

    And suddenly I’m naming the questions I didn’t know I had.

    Things like, “I wonder why there was hesitation,” or, “I’m not sure if the concern was about the idea or the timing.”

    That’s the routine.

    Nothing complicated.

    Just a simple structure that helps your brain stop spiraling and start thinking.

    It’s amazing how often clarity shows up once you slow down long enough to see what you actually saw.

    Leaders don’t need more noise.

    They need more structure for their own thinking.

    And AI, used in the right way, gives you that structure in the moment you need it.

    Post 3 is next. We’re going to talk about blind spots and how AI can surface the things you swear you “didn’t miss”… but absolutely did.

    If any part of this routine sounds useful, try it once and see what shows up. I’d love to hear what you notice.

  • When the Waiting Room Becomes an Echo Chamber

    When the Waiting Room Becomes an Echo Chamber

    This morning I find myself in a packed dealership service waiting room because apparently every single one of us had the same “brilliant” idea: get the car checked before Thanksgiving travel.

    I’m sitting in a living, breathing echo chamber.

    We all had the same plan, same timing, same logic.

    No one questioned the obvious. We all just… showed up. Ugh.

    And as I sit here watching the room fill beyond capacity, it has me thinking about work, and the fact that this happens in leadership far more often than we admit.

    We fall in love with alignment. We assume shared thinking means we’re on the right track. But when everyone is thinking the same way, no one is actually thinking. Consensus feels safe, familiar, efficient even. But more often than not, it’s a sign we’ve stopped asking the harder questions. It’s actually exhausting to sit in meetings with everyone just saying “yes” to whatever idea gets put out there.

    True leaders who move things forward aren’t the ones who blindly follow the pattern everyone else defaults to. They’re the ones who pause long enough to ask:

    “Is this actually the best move, or just the expected one?”

    Strategic divergence is underrated. It’s not rebellion for the sake of rebellion; it’s curiosity with a spine. It’s the awareness that if you only ever make the same choices as everyone else, you shouldn’t be surprised when you end up in the same waiting room at the same time, frustrated for the same reasons.

    A little intentional questioning goes a long way, in both car maintenance and in leadership.

    P.S. Safe travels to everyone hitting the road this week. And may your service appointment move faster than mine. 🤪